Fenella Lemonsky- North London Eating Disorders Group for Sufferers

Fenella studied health science and mathematics at Middlesex University. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and fortunate in having received treatment at the Halliwick Unit with mentalization based treatment which enabled her recovery.

Involved with her local mental health service user group Barnet Voice for Mental Health, she got involved with the local psychological therapy service through recruitment panels and working groups. She was invited to join the National Personality Disorder development Programme in 2003 and sat on the National Service User Reference Group which assisted in the selection of the original community pilots for personality disorder such as The Haven in Colchester. She also received training at the Kings Fund on Building Healthy Communities which was a one year management programme on developing and sustaining a health related programme in London.

She developed an eating disorders support group in conjunction with BEAT and the group is now commissioned by her local authority. She offers two placements to trainee psychotherapists or assistant psychologists going on to a career in postgraduate psychological therapy. Her work is supervised by Dr Gillian Baker a GP and Psychoanalyst. She has also worked with the National IAPT team and contributed to the New Ways of Working for Psychological Therapists document.

Fenella has a strong interest in research (talking therapies) and is involved with the NIHR LCRN (former MHRN) in London and is on the PPI Advisory Board for London. She works regularly with the mental health research team at Imperial College and the Anna Freud Centre. She has trained in clinical audit at Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. She also contributed to the development of a local care pathway and business plan for personality disorder and talking therapies.

She also is active in teaching GPs about common mental health problems. A regular Twitter follower, Fenella has a good following on Twitter with professionals such as Prof Paul Gately, Nicky Runeckles (Big White Wall), Dr Zoe Rutherford, Kath Evans and Jane Street..